Kansas City Southern Railway’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, who has helped lead the railroad’s successful push into the U.S.-Mexico cross-border market, has been promoted to president.

Kansas City Southern Railway’s intermodal traffic increased 8 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2014, despite congestion from other U.S. railroads and cross-border diversions that cost it some volume.

U.S. agriculture shippers are welcoming Washington’s recent decision to finally open up the border to more Mexican trucking companies as the move will end retaliatory tariffs on their products and will help them find truck capacity.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s decision to finally open up the border to Mexican trucking companies — a key stipulation of NAFTA still not implemented after two decades — has resolved none of the political controversy and still faces severe political backlash from opponents including the Teamsters.

Barely a few months go by without an automaker announcing plans to move or increase production in Mexico. General Motors, for example, said in December it would invest $5 billion in Mexico by 2018, adding to the $1.4 billion it’s already spent on factories there.